Internally, however, there are still kinks and stumbling blocks that developers need to sidestep, long-abandoned features maintained only for backward compatibility, misdirected phrasings that hinder more intuitive syntax structures, and a cacophony of modules that sometimes work well together, but occasionally don't. Perl 5 continues to have a strong following devoted to its development, but in the meantime, a core group of Perl developers has begun work on Perl 6, a complete rewrite of the Perl language. While Perl's creative philosophy and common-sense syntax are sure to remain in Perl 6, everything else in the language is being reexamined and re-created.

Internally, however, there are still kinks and stumbling blocks that developers need to sidestep, long-abandoned features maintained only for backward compatibility, misdirected phrasings that hinder more intuitive syntax structures, and a cacophony of modules that sometimes work well together, but occasionally don't. Perl 5 continues to have a strong following devoted to its development, but in the meantime, a core group of Perl developers has begun work on Perl 6, a complete rewrite of the Perl language. While Perl's creative philosophy and common-sense syntax are sure to remain in Perl 6, everything else in the language is being reexamined and re-created.

This look at Perl 6 uncovers developments in Parrot - the interpreter engine that will execute code written in the new Perl 6 language and the most revolutionary change in the language itself - Apocalypse 12 on objects.

Want to learn how to program and think like a computer scientist? This practical guide gets you started on your programming journey with the help of Perl 6, the younger sister of the popular Perl programming language. Ideal for beginners, this hands-on book includes over 100 exercises with multiple solutions, and more than 1,000 code examples so you can quickly practice what you learn. Experienced programmers—especially those who know Perl 5—will also benefit. Divided into two parts, Think Perl 6 starts with basic concepts that every programmer needs to know, and then focuses on different programming paradigms and some more advanced programming techniques. With two semesters’ worth of lessons, this book is the perfect teaching tool for computer science beginners in colleges and universities. Learn basic concepts including variables, expressions, statements, functions, conditionals, recursion, and loops Understand commonly used basic data structures and the most useful algorithms Dive into object-oriented programming, and learn how to construct your own types and methods to extend the language Use grammars and regular expressions to analyze textual content Explore how functional programming can help you make your code simpler and more expressive

Gain the skills to begin developing Perl 6 applications from the ground up in this hands-on compact book, which includes a foreword from Larry Wall, creator of Perl. You’ll learn enough to get started building with Perl 6, using Perl 6’s gradual typing, handy object orientation features, powerful parsing capabilities, and human-usable concurrency. After a short introduction, each chapter develops a small example project, explaining the Perl 6 features used. When the example is done, you’ll explore another aspect, such as optimizing further for readability or testing the code. Along the way you’ll see Perl 6 basics, such as variables and scoping; subroutines; classes and objects; regexes; and code testing. When you’ve mastered the basics, Perl 6 Fundamentals moves onto more advanced topics to give you a deeper understanding of the language. You’ll learn, amongst other things, how to work with persistent storage, how to generate good error messages, and how to write tricky applications such as a file and directory usage graph and a Unicode search tool. What You'll Learn Get coding with Perl 6 Work on several hands-on examples and projects Integrate Python libraries into your Perl 6 programs Parse INI files using regexes and grammars Build a date time converter Carry out refactoring and other automated tests Who This Book Is For If you already know one or more programming languages, and want to learn about Perl 6, this book is for you.

With insightful tips and techniques for programming with Perl, this efficient little guide provides immediate solutions with field tested examples to help programmers and Web developers quickly solve problems and fully utilize the power and flexibility of the cross-platform programming language.

* Perl 6 is not going to be available for quite a while, but, there is enormous interest in the Perl community (Perl use=14% and succeeds Linux and PHP in popularity) about its features and coding style / Many Perl 6-isms are suitable for production code and serious software development. * Most up-to-date text possible on the Perl language. * Walters assists with bimonthly Phoenix Perl Mongers user group meetings, often presenting. Presentations include demonstrations of his CPAN modules, current topics in software engineering, object-oriented programming techniques, information security, peer to peer architecture, ecommerce with credit card gateways, and other topics.